Chaos Computer Club condemns e-voting machine

Flaws detected

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The German Computer Chaos Club, Europe's largest hacker group, has called for a ban on the Nedap ES3B voting machine and similar computers after a Dutch citizens group found flaws in the dated e-voting machine.

The computer is used in elections in the Netherlands, Germany and France, and marketed in the United States by Liberty Election Systems as the LibertyVote.

The Dutch group Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet ("We don't trust voting computers") recently produced a report after a month long investigation and uncovered several flaws. For instance the ES3B's radio emanations can be monitored to find out how voters were casting their electronic ballots. Maurice Wessling of Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet says that compromising the system requires replacing only a single component, roughly the size of a stamp, and is “impossible to detect just by looking at the machine”.

Nedap doesn't deny that manipulation is possible with the Nedap voting machine. "Everything can be manipulated," the Dutch company says. However, it says the machine is secured against deliberate manipulation. In general, Nedap says, manipulation is much more difficult than with 'paper' elections.

The Chaos Computer Club says the machines do not meet standards under German law and shouldn't be used until citizens can rest assured that their votes are securely and accurately processed.®